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Some firms ignore Facebook complaints: Roseman

If you can’t reach companies with complaints, you can get results with social media. Twitter often works better than Facebook because it’s uncensored.

Companies like to control interactions on social media, according to a study of the top 50 U.S. brands by consultant A.T. Kearney. It found seven big brands with Facebook pages – including Disney, Gucci, McDonald’s, Louis Vuitton, American Express and Sony – allowed only company-initiated chat.
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“I’d give Toshiba Canada a minus 10 out of 10 for response time,” he says, adding that no one contacted him.

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Rabinowitz’s problem was resolved when I forwarded his email to my Toshiba Canada contact Sherry Lyons. She sent a prepaid label for shipping the glasses and extended his warranty by six months as a goodwill gesture.

Social media channels were supposed to revolutionize complaint handling. Public feedback on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube would make companies work harder to satisfy disgruntled customers.

I don’t see it happening in Canada yet. I still get many appeals from people looking to mainstream media to resolve problems after they bomb out on social media.

Jennifer Ho had a bad experience shopping for Christmas lights in January at a Target Canada store. She complained about customer service at the company’s Facebook page and received nasty comments in return.

“The trolls defend Target and it’s very toxic. One person said I should go to Holt Renfrew if I expected personal service. Another asked what would be the big deal if I wasted a few dollars,” she said.

Lisa Gibson, a company spokeswoman, promised to share Ho’s comments with the store leadership team since they liked receiving client feedback.

“Target does enjoy a strong following of Facebook fans and appreciates their support and loyalty. We do not tolerate mean-spirited or inappropriate behaviour on our social channels,” she said.

Target Canada has 1.23 million likes, a strong showing for a U.S. retailer opening stores here since March 2013. But fans looking for news of the firing of Target Canada CEO Tony Fisher had to go elsewhere. By 4.30 p.m., the Facebook page had only a Victoria Day message posted a day earlier.

Companies like to control interactions on social media, according to a study of the top 50 U.S. brands by consultant A.T. Kearney. It found seven big brands with Facebook pages – including Disney, Gucci, McDonald’s, Louis Vuitton, American Express and Sony – allowed only company-initiated chat.

This meant a company could initiate conversations on the brand’s “wall,” but consumers could only reply. And only one of the top brands routed fans to an unfiltered Facebook wall, while the rest showed a filtered selection of company posts.

“These world-class brands are using their ostensibly hip brands to showcase traditional, time-honored and digitally irrelevant one-way conversations (from the company to the consumer), while hiding actual communication from consumers behind a digital curtain.”

I look to Twitter more than Facebook for unfiltered chat. And I’m impressed to see uprisings by frustrated consumers, such as those alleging their Presto public transit cards break easily and can lose loaded value for no reason.

“We are listening every day and we take all customer feedback seriously,” says Vanessa Thomas, a spokeswoman for Metrolinx (which runs Presto). “We work very hard to ensure every issue is resolved.”

I’m also hearing from BMO MasterCard customers, who use Twitter to gripe about long wait times to check their accounts by telephone after a bumpy computer system upgrade.

“We apologize to our customers,” says BMO spokesman Ralph Marranca. “Our social media team helps customers by providing general information and inviting them to connect with us offline via private email.”

Twitter has fewer users than Facebook. But in my view, consumers have a greater impact reaching out to companies with a series of tweets than with posts that may be erased from a firm’s carefully controlled wall.

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